...this was a block of the month quilt from Whichcraft in Invercargill, created over a period of months during 2008-2009. In 2012 I was able to sash the blocks and it was beautifully long-arm quilted by Barbara Joyce Quilting in Otatara...

Sunday, October 19, 2014

A finish for my wishlist for the Littlest Thistle Q4 Finish-Along! And now that she has received it I can reveal that I whipped this up last week as a gift for my lovely workmate, Jo Stanway, who had a 'significant' (yet still plenty young enough) birthday on Sunday and is a true-blooded Southland girl, so what better name for this quilt than 'Sunny Southland Day'?
Here in Southland we can sometimes have 'four seasons in one day' at any time of the year but today was absolutely gorgeous and sunny, which happens a lot more often than many North Islanders would believe!

View from the top of the Edendale hill, looking south-east into the Lower Mataura Valley, Southland.

I spent all day and evening on Saturday getting this quilted and I put the plain pale aqua binding on while watching the All Blacks beat Australia 29-29 for the Bledisloe Cup. Way to go AB's!!

Can you spot my Black Bess in the sunshine?

Made during the week from two charm packs of Kate Spain for Moda "Sunnyside" range, plus yardage of white solid...approx 53" x 55". Photo obviously in the shade - the colours look darker here than in real life but you can see the pattern I used and the loops I used for quilting. The quilt has crinkled up nicely after being washed.

I quilted lines of loops side to side and then loose double loops around the outside border.

The back is made from a pale aqua green basket-weave fabric.

Some close ups of some of my favourite blocks - such gorgeous fabrics and the colours are a wonderful mix of aqua, pale blue, a sort of lime green, some inky blues, light and dark salmon/tangerines, lemons and golds, pale and smokey greys...(and the blocks are straighter than some look in the photo, the quilt was folded a bit bumpy underneath)...

One more photo, this time looking east from the hill, with the top of the Fonterra Edendale factory showing in the distance...

And me...(Brian wanted me to hold it for photos to prove to me it wasn't easy to have arms outstretched while holding up a 'heavy' quilt...I was fine!)

Friday, October 17, 2014

I got inspired (read "distracted") last Sunday night and started a new lap quilt when I found two Kate Spain (for Moda) 'Sunnyside' charm packs in my stash and just had to do something with them...ta-da!!

When laying it out I tried just randomly putting down the blocks and then I
also tried to group the blocks so that there was a sort of ombre pattern
with similar colours together but I didn't really love the way the way
it looked (I had really only randomly placed the charms
together when sewing and had no real master plan).

So
I left it for a night and when I had another look at it all I decided to break up
the blocks with white sashings and I really love the way it has turned
out..

Sunday, October 12, 2014

The Littlest Thistle blog (aka Katy) is running a finishing challenge - great incentive to win any of the awesome prizes. I entered the last quarter challenge and got three projects completed which is not too bad, and with the final term of the year being only nine weeks long (with reports due and a concert item to practice) I am sure time will fly by.

So I have made what is hopefully a realistic list for this last quarter of the year...we all need a target don't we?!

And after all, I'll then have six weeks holiday to bust out any other projects I want to get stuck into.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Well, now that my String of Pearls Remixed quilt is finished (see it here), I took advantage of still being on school holiday to get straight into my version of a Fat Quarter Fizz quilt (though I stuffed up on the placement of the fabrics, so was not able to get the design looking right, and decided to make a new design by cutting the block rows at semi-random widths and re-sewing them to make what I am calling my Fat Quarter Fizzy! Sigh...)

Anyway, this newest project obviously passes the feline warmth factor test...either that or Rumbles is really just looking for attention...just not very helpful when I am wanting to get onto basting! (He does this when I want to make the bed too!)

When I turned back from getting the basting pins...

...he had a "so what are you going to do about it?" glance at me...

...then moved into his favourite sleep position...

Yes, he is a weird cat - this is his "I'm blissed out" sleeping position, mostly seen when on sofa or in front of fireplace.